


A Good Man

by Meddow



Series: The Admiral [3]
Category: Pirates of the Caribbean
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-19
Updated: 2007-05-19
Packaged: 2017-10-08 17:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,066
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meddow/pseuds/Meddow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Admiral returns to Tortuga and Shelly finally finds out the truth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Good Man

**Author's Note:**

> This is the third and final part of The Admiral series. It was written before AWE, but I think it still stands.

The feeling of unease had been hanging over Tortuga for some weeks before the raid. Everywhere Shelly turned there had been talk of the East India Trading Company and the Royal Navy followed by hushed whispers of Davy Jones' wrath and of the end. Something was very wrong and every pirate, publican and whore knew it.

It had begun soon after Jack Sparrow's last visit to the port. He had business with Davy Jones, that much had been known. Shelly wondered what Jack had done this time, whether it had been him who had brought calamity down on the heads of every sailor in the Caribbean. One did not provoke Jones; that much everyone knew and Jack probably better than most. But Jack had set off anyway.

That was also day the Admiral had disappeared. Rumour had it he left in the company of a boy and joined the crew of the _Black Pearl_. All his talk of dead men and tales had come to nothing. He had not been killed, but neither did they have confirmation of his identity. The speculation of the particulars of the conversation between him and Gibbs had been endless. They had determined that Gibbs had recognised the Admiral for who he was, but nobody had seen Gibbs to ask him since the _Black Pearl_ had left port. Gibbs, the Admiral and the entire crew had vanished along with Jack.

Shelly missed the Admiral sometimes, but life went on and so did Tortuga. Even if its days were numbered, the fact was not many had anywhere else to go. Shelly certainly did not, and so she ignored the whispers the best she could, putting her best smile on for clients that walked into the _Jolly Cripple_, and silently hoping things would settle and sensibly acquiring herself a pistol.

It was not night when the Navy arrived, it was midday when many were still lying in bed with aches from the night before. There were screams of "Marines!" in the streets as people rushed away from the port, heading inland where they could possibly escape.

Shelly did not have a chance. She awoke to find Red Coats walking down the street with rifles slung over their shoulder, grabbing whomever they found, placing them in shackles and dragging them away. Shelly squinted as she looked out from her window to the bay, ship after ship rested there, all flying the flag of the East India Trading Company. She could see that in the dock sailors were stringing up nooses. Half the men Shelly knew had pirate brands. It was going to be a slaughter.

Tucking a pistol into her corset, Shelly rushed downstairs. Thomas the barkeep had already fled; but there were still a few whores left. They were clambering into the cellar to hide as when the marines started banging down the door. Unable to make across the floor and to the cellar the in time, Shelly hid in the stairwell. It was out of sight from the pub but should they decide to search upstairs she would certainly be found and she had no idea what would happen to a captured whore.

From her hiding place she could see nothing, but she could hear the terrible sound of pair upon pair of heavy boots walk across the floor, of tables being uplifted and chairs thrown across the room. Pressed as straight as she could against the wall, she closed her eyes, tried to slow her heavy frightened breathing and prayed.

She heard the noise come closer and closer to her spot before a familiar voice spoke out.

"That is enough."

Shelly recognised who it belonged to instantly, she had heard it often enough. It was as if someone had walked over her grave, the hairs on her arms spiked as if she had been caught in a cold breeze. She stopped mid prayer and opened her eyes.

The Admiral had returned.

"Yes sir," came voices belonging to the Marines and she heard the boots slowly marching away from her and out the door.

'Sir.' They had called him 'sir.' He was giving orders to the men destroying her home. There had to be more too it, Shelly decided. This was the Admiral, the man who had once saved her life and who always had the time to pull himself out of his drunken self-loathing to ensure others like her we safe. He would not do something like that. He would not be complicit in the murder of so many like him.

There was a few moments silence in which Shelly wondered if they the Admiral had left, when someone took a step. He was not moving with the urgency the marines had been, instead he seemed to be wandering. Nevertheless, he was moving towards her hiding spot.

Then another voice rang out in the silence. "I thought I might find you here. Rumour has it that you were once quite the regular at this establishment some months ago."

"It's not a period I like to dwell on," The Admiral replied coldly.

The other man must have stepped out of the doorway because Shelly heard another pair of shoes making a smaller, lighter sound on the floor.

"And yet here you are," the man replied. He had an arrogant, educated manner and Shelly could practically hear his smirk in his voice.

"You wish to have this port under British control and I am scouting out the best locations from which to position authority."

"I'm sure you are. We are lucky to have you, Admiral Norrington."

Norrington. It was if that man had taken to Shelly and scooped out her insides. The Admiral was Norrington? Norrington, the man they all feared, whose disappearance they had rejoiced. Before his disappearance a year ago it was whispers of "Norrington" and not "Jones" that kept the residents on edge. One day, they would say, he'd have enough men and enough ships and then their days were up. There had been celebrating the day they had found he was dead – it was something the Admiral had told them.

"Not many of your rank have such intimate knowledge of pirate ports. In fact I think you may be the only one," the stranger continued.

"Indeed Lord Becket. I am eternally grateful for your patronage."

He had betrayed them. The Admiral – Norrington, the man the whores had taken in, had gone back to the Navy and was now extracting revenge on her home. All this time he had the man who been catching and hanging pirates. It was him who had brought this destruction down upon them.

And she had trusted him. Shelly had talked to him and asked about him. She had felt sorry for him and wished better things for him. And in return this was what he had done.

"Do remember that Admiral. I have heard talk." The man walked away.

Shelly heard the door close. It was soon followed by the sound of a glass smashing.

He walked closer to where she was hiding. Shelly decided she could not just let him get away with what he was doing and what he had done. She grabbed this pistol out of her corset and held it tightly in shaking hands.

"Bastard!" she yelled at Norrington as she emerged from her hiding place.

"Shelly!" exclaimed, seeming to be shocked at how quickly she had appeared.

He did not look like the lovelorn and pitiful Admiral she had remembered, but nether was he the monster as Norrington had been made out to be. Now clean shaven and dressed in a fine uniform and with new powdered wig he looked the part of a gentleman, familiar but different, neither friend nor stranger.

"Yeh black-hearted traitorous cowardly bastard!" Shelly continued, showing she had a pistol.

Norrington just stood there, his expression turned briefly to one of concern but she did not get the expression she desired of him: fear. "Shelly, I need to ask you a question."

"Yeh lying piece of scum!" she cried.

Her hands shook awkwardly. She had never fired on a person before.

The Admiral put a calming hand out and moved towards her. "Shelly-"

"Don't come near me!"

"I am not here to arrest you! I need to ask you a question!" he yelled back.

"We protected yeh! And this is what yeh do in return! This is me home!" Shelly realised she was crying, but instead of whipping the tears away she raised her pistol, pointing it directly as she could with shaking hands at the Admiral's heart.

"Shelly put the pistol down!"

Shelly fired.

The bang made her jump back and close her eyes. She wondered if she had done it, if it had been her, just another whore, who had disposed of such a prominent figure as Admiral Norrington.

When she opened them she found that the Admiral had not fallen the floor, nor was he grabbing at any part of his body or screaming in pain. Instead he turned to look at the wall where the bullet had lodged.

"Are you quite done?" he asked.

"This is me home."

"I know."

"And yer Norrington. I trusted yeh and yer Norrington." She was still crying.

"Shelly," he pleaded.

"Bastard!" she cried once more. "Yeh filthy stinkin' bastard."

Shelly sunk to the floor. Norrington walked over.

"I need your help."

"Leave me alone," she muttered.

"Listen, Shelly…" he started as he leaned down.

Shelly spat at him and this time she did not miss. She wanted him to hit her. She wanted him to show his true colours and become just like those men that he had protected her and others from. But he did not. Instead he turned away. He pulled out a cloth from his pocket and wiped his face before turning back towards her, his expression stoic, but she could tell from the look in his eyes that he was seething.

There was a knock on the door and Norrington turned. "Hide," he whispered.   
Shelly shook her head. She knew she had every reason to hide, but she was determined to stay just where she was to spite him.

The door opened and a man walked in, an old man wearing fine clothes topped with a full wig and very tired expression.

"Governor," Norrington exclaimed. "I thought you were remaining at the docks."

"I," the Governor replied heavily. "I wanted to see things for myself."

He then seemed to notice Shelly. "Is this a person who can help us?"

"Indeed it is. She knows the Port well. Shelly, this is the Governor of Jamaica."

Shelly felt it was some strange joke. Shelly, a whore from Tortuga had somehow managed to make an acquaintance with the leader of the Royal Navy in the Caribbean and had now been introduced to the Governor of Jamaica, two people she should have by all rights gone through life without ever setting eyes on.

She saw her opportunity. The Admiral wanted his place in society - well she was going to destroy it. She stood up and walked over to the Governor, flaunting her curves as she did so.

"Aye, I'm a good friend of the Admiral here. And a whore. His favourite whore to be honest. Know that about yer Admiral here. He's a drunkard scoundrel and a liar. Spends his days starting fights and his nights sleeping with the pigs."

She glared at Norrington hoping that he was fuming. He did not turn away; instead he caught her eyes, looking at her stubbornly as if he was resigned to his punishment at her hands.

She turned back to the Governor, who seemed to not be rattled at all. He looked too drawn to care about social niceties.

"What Admiral Norrington has been up to in the past year is not my concern right now. I am looking for my daughter."

"The woman dressed as a boy who left with me aboard the _Black Pear_l," the Admiral added.

Shelly turned to him and looked him in the eyes. "Yeh destroy my home and yeh want me to help yeh? What kind of fool do yer both take me fer?"

With that Norrington turned, grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the Governor's earshot.

"You do not have to help me. I understand why you would want to take it out on me, but please help him. His only child is missing," he whispered.

"The girl you said you loved?" she asked, remembering story he had once told.

"The woman I once loved, yes," he replied in a hushed manner.

"No," Shelly replied, crossing her arms as she did so.

"I have had enough of this," the Governor remarked from where he was standing. "The loss of your home is regrettable, but inevitable. You should know that the decision was not something either Admiral Norrington or I had any control over. Though I cannot say I'm sorry about the loss. You and everyone else should know that the East India Trading Company runs the seas now, and being the last free port, Tortuga was never safe."

"I still ain't helping yeh," Shelly replied.

"Please," Norrington said, standing back. She decided it must be killing him to be begging a whore now that he had regained his place and she was enjoying every moment of it.

"Goes against me principles to help out you lot."

The Governor then pulled out a purse. "I can reward you."

Shelly put out a hand. Vengeance was pleasing, but it did not pay and money was money no matter whom it came from.

The Governor fished around and produced two gold coins.

"What do yeh want to know?"

"The girl dressed as a boy, Elizabeth Swann, have you or anyone else seen her or heard of her?" Norrington asked.

Shelly shook her head. "Not since yeh left."

"How about William Turner?" the Governor asked.

Shelly put out her hand again to be rewarded with two more coins.

"Never heard of anyone by that name," she replied.

"Jack Sparrow?" Norrington asked.

Again Shelly was rewarded with coins.

"I thought yeh would have killed him," Shelly replied, glaring at Norrington.

Norrington just glared right back.

"No," Shelly answered. No one had seen Jack since he left.

"Gibbs, Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti. Any member of the crew of the _Black Pearl_," the Admiral asked, listing off the names in a desperate manner.

Shelly put out her hand, and the Governor emptied out the contents of his purse.

"They only one I, or any one else has seen, is you," Shelly replied.

The two men stood there silently not saying a word, both seeming to be contemplating something that caused them both pain.

Finally Norrington spoke. "Governor, I fear we are running out of possibilities. Maybe it is time to acc-"

"Please, not now," the Governor interrupted.

Norrington nodded his head in silent agreement.

"I think - I think that I shall return to the dock," the Governor said with his mind quite obviously elsewhere. "Good day." He seemed so defeated, if conversation had taken place somewhere else, Shelly may have felt sorry for him.

Shelly watched the Admiral watching him go. As he closed the door to the pub he turned to Shelly and looked her in the eyes.

"Are you lying?" he asked, his voice having lost the care he had being taking around the Governor.

"This from the man who told us all he was dead," Shelly replied.

"Be angry at me, not him. He has never lied to you."

"I wasn't lying," Shelly replied.

He gave her a dissatisfied look. She knew he did not believe her. Though even if she was inclined to want to make him believe, she did not know of anything she could say that would convince him.

Norrington gave a heavy sigh. "Get out of here, Shelly. Take that gold and run."

"Run from my home, the only place I've every known. I don't have another option," she replied spitefully.

"Yer know, Tim was right about you," she added. "Biding yer time teh raid Tortuga. Bloodthirsty cold-hearted bastard. Yeh deserve everything yeh got and more. I should have never protected yeh."

The Admiral turned to walk away.

"How many are going ter be hanged today?" she called after him.

"As many as have pirate brands," he replied.

"And how many of them have yer drunk with?" she asked.

He stopped. "I wouldn't expect you or anyone else her to understand how justice works. It's been a long time since the law of any nation touched his port"

"But yeh no doing it for justice. Yeh murdering people yer know it because yeh want to be Admiral Norrington-"

"-And not the Admiral," he interrupted finishing her sentence. "You are all talk. If you had the opportunity to be something more than a whore you would seize it in a moment."

"If it was between me position or me soul, I know which one I would pick," she stubbornly replied.

He just looked at her.

"Yeh were a better man when yeh were one of us," Shelly muttered. "Yer were a good man then."

He seemed to think for a moment before replying.

"I know good men. I've seen good men murdered and drown. That man you just callously took money off is a good man and he has one thing in the world that is important to him, and it's not his position or his money – it is his daughter. And now because I…" the Admiral stopped for a moment, considering his words. "Because of the actions of selfish men she is dead."

Shelly remembered then the man who had sat at a table mere feet from where he now stood and confessed that he had loved that same woman and lost her and now did not feel he was good enough for her.

Now he had truly lost, Shelly decided, and she was glad of it. He had lost just as she had now lost.

"After all I've been through, do you want to know the one thing I have learned?" he asked with his voice raw and weary.

"That there is no place for a good man in the Caribbean."

With that he stepped out into the street and pulled the door shut behind him, leaving Shelly standing alone in what remains of her home.


End file.
